


Name, Rank, Serial Number

by GhostCwtch



Series: JaegerconBingo Fills [14]
Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Angst, Body Dysphoria, Gen, Panic Attacks, Past Suicidal Thoughts, memory sharing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-17
Updated: 2013-08-17
Packaged: 2017-12-23 18:51:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/929882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GhostCwtch/pseuds/GhostCwtch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Yancy's dog tags that Raleigh reaches for when the walls of the Shatterdome are closing in and his skin doesn't feel like his own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Name, Rank, Serial Number

**Author's Note:**

> Fill for "dog tags".

Raleigh wears two sets of dog tags. Of course, the ones Yancy was wearing when he died were never found, but they had a couple back up sets each, different ones issued for different Shatterdomes back in the early days before the system really got organised enough to have a standard protocol across the various countries.

He wears two sets of dog tags and when the claustrophobic feeling of having two, now three sets of memories leaves him choking and huddled against the wall in some forgotten hallway, it's Yancy's set he grabs. He holds them hard enough to bruise the name into the flesh of his palm, hard enough the the blunt edges draw blood.

He wishes he could hold them tighter.

He wishes that he could hold them tight enough, bleed on them like a talisman, and bring his brother back. He's got three sets of experience in his head, three childhoods and three ways of dealing with trauma. When it was just him and Yancy in his head, he went into construction and they got on with it. And was more Yancy than him deciding not to take that final step off a girder at the top of the wall, well. Who was a dead man going to tell?

Now though, he's got Yancy's determination, his own heart, and Mako's burning vengeance and sorrow from all three for what they've lost. Sometimes his body is too large and awkwardly square, lacking the curves and the sway of hips that one set of memories says should be there. Other time, it's his but not, the younger brother just that little bit shorter than the elder.

Today though, Raleigh doesn't reach for the dog tags and his skin remains his own. Today, the only dog tags he fiddles with are the ones stamped with his name. Today is the first day of their bright new world, a world free of kaiju and finally filled with a hope of tomorrow.


End file.
